As I was saying, the weather on the way to Windsor was both welcome and weird. And it set a pretty appropriate mood for the strangeness of the evening to come.

Windsor is an odd city. I’d never been. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s right on the Canadian border and right next to Detroit, practically part of the same city. You can look at Detroit from across the river:

Because the drinking age is lower in Ontario than in Michigan, 19-year-olds flood across the border on weekends to party. It’s also fairly touristy in general, with a big casino’s searchlights criss-crossing the sky, and the sidewalks are busy with a bizarrely wide range of characters; stunning models dressed immaculately, hip-hop boyz covered in bling, chubby tourists arguing with each other in rapid-fire languages incomprehensible to me.

Saturday was even busier than usual, because there was supposed to be some crazy airplane race over the river, and the hordes had gathered in town for it. It was postponed because of the winds and thunderstorms, but people were still in town. Some of the streets were closed off and the restaurants had extended their patios into the street for the event. It was a party night.

We got to the Phog Lounge early. It’s a small red standalone building on University Avenue, just down the road from the party scene. Tom runs the place, and he’s a man with a plan. He’s very much in tune with what’s going on in the community, both the music community (online and offline) and the local area. He blogs about all the bands coming to play the Phog, and uses Twitter to let people know when the show is about to start. He’ll occasionally zip down the street and find out what’s going on in town that might affect the crowd that night. He’s sharp and attentive and is one of the few people providing a haven for independent bands in Windsor (the birthplace of Top 40).

Our opener tonight was Brian, a solo artist playing as “A Welcome Breeze". He was about to go on, shortly after 11 - for some reason, in Windsor, crowds come out very late - and we were all sitting outside, talking and people-watching. We were chatting with Sean Ashby and his band, who were due to play their first show at a venue a few blocks away from us, when the street went dark and the power went out.

This was not something we had expected.

All over Windsor, chunks of the grid had gone down. Strangely enough, it seemed to affect different areas in different ways - across the street from the Phog, the streetlights were off, but the building behind them was still glowing. The street was dark for two blocks to the east, but beyond that it seemed to be fine; passersby told us that further down the road, the power was gone there too.

There wasn’t much to do but wait and see what would happen. Tom and crew lit candles and distributed them around the bar, still serving drinks and tallying orders best as they could. Most of us sat outside, talked and wondered amongst ourselves, and waited for news. Marcus grabbed his guitar and provided some acoustic ambience, and most people stuck around to see what would happen next.

Over an hour passed with no sign of life. Rumour had it that a transformer had caught fire. Brian was worried that even when the power came back on, the event would have shorted his sampler and potentially destroyed two years of work. There was still a crowd, but they would only stay so long with no music. Tom had just come over to talk to us and see what we wanted to do, and we were considering giving up, when all the lights sprung back into action and the room filled with cheers. Brian got his electronics up and running and discovered that he had, unfortunately, lost some of his work, but still had enough to play an interesting and relaxing set of ambient drums and slide guitar.

We headed onto stage and started into “You Coming Down", a bit too slow. Other than that the set went smoothly. People were still coming in, even though it was after 1, and clearly getting into what we were doing. By the closing notes of “Anything More” we had massive cheers and demands for more. Fortunately we hadn’t played “Put It All Together” yet, and as we started that, a group of girls got up and started dancing in front. They were so into it that it seemed like the song should never end. We stretched the solo out for so long I lost track of time, building it up and bringing it down wherever it felt like it needed it. I couldn’t stop grinning. Eventually we realized the song had to stop sometime, but the crowd still wanted more; Marcus suggested we reprise “You Coming Down", which we did, at a much better pace than before. We did the Extended Dance Remix, adding to the intro and a big long breakdown during which an older fellow breakdanced.

We ended on that high note - it was almost last call, and we were out of danceable material! (A few people told us afterwards that something amazing must have happened - Windsor is one of those towns where nobody ever dances.) We’ve got a new song in the works that would’ve been an awesome fit but isn’t quite ready for prime time; I can’t wait to bring it out next time. And the Phog Lounge is definitely a place we’re keen to play again - Tom is doing some smart things there, and his enthusiasm was inspiring to us.

After talking to a ton of people, packing up and loading, it was 3:30 AM before we finally pulled up to a motel. It was a little place called Bestway with a flashy sign and somewhat shoddily maintained rooms. I think the atmosphere could be summed up best by the exchange at our arrival: when Marcus asked the clerk if there was a room for three available, the clerk replied, without changing expression: “Will that be for the whole night?”

I suppose there must be an hourly rate, but we didn’t ask, and stayed the whole night.

Today we drove up to Tobermory, where we’re going to catch a ferry in the morning and shortcut over on our way towards Thunder Bay. We have until Tuesday evening to get there, so there’s lots of time, and after the intensity of the past week we’re looking forward to shorter drives and some idle time to stare at the landscapes and do nothing. Today’s drive led us through farms and small towns with plenty of thriving mom & pop businesses and almost no big box stores, places too small for Wal-Mart to bother assimilating. We had awesome fish & chips at Lobbie’s in Sauble Beach, and watched the sunset here on the shore in Tobermory. It was beautiful, and tomorrow’s scenery should be terrific too.